£558 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
‘to the method, but the lack of ability or of experience of those who use 
it; providing the points used are sufficiently fine, no accident is to be 
feared, no more for articular synovial than others. With Paquelin and 
Bourguet needle or the zoocautery, we pierce the synovial in its ‘most 
superficial parts; the synovia escapes, the serum remains aseptic; the 
therapeutic effects are in general superior to those of superficial 
--cauterization ; the escape of a certain quantity of fluid is allowed, which, 
with the other means, will be resorbed ; the heat carried in the synovial 
produces beneficial changes and on the level of the punctures little 
fibrous spots are formed whose retraction forms round the joint a true 
- contentive bandage of great power. Cauterization is the most used and 
‘most practical treatment. It is certainly, as said Lafosse, “ the truly 
heroic treatment.” 
Efficacious as it is, firing is not infallible,—and it blemishes. On 
that account, and specially for fine horses, other therapeutic means have 
‘been looked for, to take its place. It is centuries since it has been 
‘thought to give escape to that synovia, often thick, grumulous and 
‘with difficulty resorbable. From time immemorial, Arabs opened the 
thoroughpins of their horses with the red iron. Bruché (1826) punc- 
tured hydarthrosis with the iron carried to white heat, and when they 
were voluminous, he enveloped them with points of firing. From time 
to time we yet meet with arthritis of the hock or the stifle, consecutive 
to the opening of hydarthrosis with the cautery—an operation which is 
still performed by horse-shoers and empirics. Already Garsault and 
a number of others of the last century, passed, through thoroughpins, 
.-setons animated with “ ointment of scarabee.” The puncture with the 
 bistouri has counted many convinced advocates. In 1826, Cross 
addressed the Sociéte Centrale d’ Agriculture with a paper on the 
‘- Recovery of Dropsies by Puncture with the Bistouri.” Dard, Roettger, 
Fischer operated often that way and completed, the operation by a band- 
- age and a blistering friction. 
These primitive methods have caused many “ disasters”: often they 
promoted articular inflammation, which soon cools down the most 
‘enthusiastic. To be useful and harmless, the puncture must be capillary 
and made in conditions of perfect asepsy. The skin should be shaved, 
washed, disinfected. Onthe prominent point of the hydarthrosis, the 
aseptic trocar should be thrust in the synovial, by a sudden motion of 
terebration. It is not necessary to make the puncture subcutaneously, in 
which the instrument, after running through the skin, passes in the 
--cellular tissue, one or two centimeters, before entering the synovial. As 
-soon as the rod is taken off, the fluid escapes through the canula; small’ 
-Squeezes over the tumor s‘imulate the flow. With a Dieulafoy or a 
